Bleeding Love
by margravinel
Summary: One Shot
1. Chapter 1

**Bleeding Love **

"_**Closed off from love, I didn't need the pain"**_

During high school, I had my fair share of heartbreak, most of it coming from the same one person. My first love, someone who I thought would be around forever, that would love me unconditionally, accepting my faults and loving me regardless of them. Someone that ultimately left me devastated, that crushed my hopes and dreams, shattered my illusion of what love was. They left me broken, scared to ever feel that way again, to open up to someone and share myself with them completely.

"_**Once or twice was enough and it was all in vain"**_

After the pain, the heartbreak, that they put me through, I returned to my old ways. I became a mere shadow of the person that I knew I could be, a ghost of the person that I aspired to become. I ached for someone to love me, to finally return the feelings that I held for them with equal intensity. I wanted someone to restore my faith in love, to show me that I was better than the meaningless relationships I settled for, the half-hearted gestures and hollow words of affection.

"_**Time starts to pass, before you know it you're frozen"**_

For a long time, I felt as though I was asking for too much. That true love was a myth, a privilege for those only that deserved it. I believed that I'd had my chance and missed out on sharing my life with someone extraordinary. I thought I was destined to be alone. To spend my days reminiscing of old loves, knowing that they were the best I would ever have. Yet, understanding that they were sheer illusions, false feelings that had not lived up to my expectations.

"_**But something happened for the very first time with you"**_

Then there was you, my love, my soul mate, and my best friend. I did something with you that I'd never done before. When you came into my life, you filled my heart completely with friendship, with stability and support. You loved me as a friend. You were there for me through some of my darkest times and saw me for the person that I was. You accepted my flaws and didn't judge me for my mistakes. You were a constant shoulder for me to lean on and I knew that I could count on you to be there for me whenever, whatever. I didn't realise then what I'd found in you, how lucky I was to be able to call you a friend, to have you in my life. You were by my side during my early relationships, a confidante who reassured me that love would find me, that I had a good heart and I deserved to be happy.

"_**My heart melted to the ground, found something true"**_

On the inside I knew that your feelings for me went deeper than just friendship, that despite your love for me you were willing to watch me with other people, because my happiness was all that mattered to you, even if it meant that we couldn't be together. I never realised that what I'd been searching for, that the thing I'd sought after for so long, was what I had with you, until that moment. The moment that you kissed me, the instant that you risked everything, our friendship, and your happiness. You changed everything and lifted the veil that had been clouding my vision. In that moment, I knew that the person I loved, that what I'd been looking for, had been beside me all along, that I'd been too blind to see, that it was you I loved.

"_**And everyone's looking round, thinking I'm going crazy"**_

No one expected it to last, that we would make it as far as we have, least of all us. People didn't understand us as a couple. They thought that we were too different to last the long haul, that aesthetically we didn't look right together. The close-minded people of my world saw us from a far. They only perceived what was skin deep. They didn't see what I saw in you. They didn't know the man that I did, the man with a good heart, who was kind and caring, who treated others with respect and could be counted on to help those that needed it, a true gentleman. Someone who was funny, and sweet, that made gestures with his heart and supported his words with actions. Someone who had faith in me, that encouraged me… someone that loved me wholeheartedly, that I loved in return.

"_**But I don't care what they say, I'm in love with you"**_

You made me a better person. Your love showed me what I'd been missing out on all those years we weren't together. If I could go back and change our past, I wouldn't. I believe our love is strong because of where it started, because of the people we were when we met. Our life together started with friendship, which over time grew into something amazing. It's because of this we've remained strong through the hard times, that we've outlasted peoples expectations of us. I love you Marvin McFadden, you are my friend, my lover, my soul mate, and my world. It's because I love you, that I am now standing in front of all our friends and family, vowing, until death do us part, to be your wife.


	2. Chapter 2

"_**Trying hard not to hear but they talk so loud"**_

For my entire life the world has judged me, has pigeonholed me into a stereotype that they believe I fulfil. Growing up I was looked down on by my peers, subjected to words of mockery and hurt because of how I looked, because of the way I chose to live my life, because they thought that I was different. I was called a geek, a nerd, and a loser by those who got by at school with the misconception that looks and appearance meant everything in a world obsessed by celebrity. The irony was that those people were all stereotyped too, the jocks, the cheerleaders, the Goths and preps. All of them.

"_**Their piercing sounds fill my ears, trying to fill me with doubt"**_

High school was never supposed to be easy, not for anyone. How could it be in a place where cliques and labels reigned, where those that were deemed attractive and popular had the envy of the entire student population, a place where there is considered no common ground, no normal? High school was a place where you were classified as one thing or another, never anything more. We belonged to different worlds, you and I. Worlds, which in the eyes of those around us should never have collided the way it did. You were popular, beautiful, the envy of every girl and the object of affection for every guy in our school. You were the head cheerleader; I was in the AV club. Our paths should never have crossed, not if stereotypes truly meant what people believed. Me, a geek, should have been ridiculed by you and your cheerleader friends. However, that was not you, you were no more that defined by that label than I was.

"_**Yet I know that the goal is to keep me from falling"**_

The first time that I met you, I knew, right then on that bench that you were different. That you too were imprisoned behind a mask, behind a label. From the moment you first looked at me, my heart jumped in my chest. You took my breath away with one smile, made my head spin in a way I never thought possible. From that moment I knew that I loved you and that I always would. You opened my eyes to my own preconceptions, showed me a side of you that you tried to keep hidden from others. You let me know that you were vulnerable, let me be the person who you could talk to about anything, trusted me with your deepest feelings and secrets. You allowed me to see your imperfections, trusted me enough to know that I wouldn't judge you for them. Brooke, you never cared what clique I was part of, what clothes I wore, or that I wasn't considered popular by those in your world, you looked past all that, you saw beyond the superficial differences and got to know the person I was on the inside. The same way that I came to understand the person that you were, the kind, loyal friend, the girl that just wanted to be loved.

"_**There's nothing greater than the rush that comes with your embrace"**_

For the longest time we were merely friends, and as much as I wanted us to be more, for you to be mine, I wanted you to be happy, even if that happiness was with someone else. I knew how lucky I was to have you in my life, and to have you as only a friend was better than not having you in it at all. I was there through the heartbreaks, through the times you wanted to self-destruct and drink your problems away. Every time that someone broke your heart, I was your shoulder to cry on, the person that you came to when you needed someone that you could rely on. In those times I would have given anything to make your pain dissipate, to heal your broken heart and see your dimpled smile once again light up a room.

"_**In and in this world of loneliness I see your face"**_

You were always there for me Brooke; you were a fiercely loyal friend who always looked out for me when you thought I was being used. You tried to protect me from having my heart broken and on the occasions that I did, you were the one who was there for me, the one who told me that I deserved someone better. At that time, you didn't realise that the person you were describing was yourself. One of the reasons that I fell in love with you was because you don't know how special you truly were, you didn't believe that you were anything more than a cheerleader and all that stereotype involved. You have achieved so much, come further than anyone that I know. You see things that are wrong with the world and want to change them, help those that need it even if sometimes they are too scared to ask for that help. You're the type of person that would go round to your best friends house everyday after her mum died, just to make sure that she was ok, you see the silver lining in every cloud, the good in everybody, everybody except yourself.

_**  
"Yet everyone around me thinks that I'm going crazy, maybe, maybe"**_

Some of my best memories from high school are the ones that I shared with you. You made something that was a struggle, something, which is supposed to be the most difficult time of everyone's life, enjoyable. You took me to my first strip club; let me ride with you in your limousine, you made me plot stupid schemes with you over apple pie and asked me to be your date for prom. You gave me the confidence to do things I'd never even thought possible, you sent me on missions to spy on opposing cheerleader teams, inspired me to speak up for you in front of everyone with your determination to change your life and run for student body president. You made it feel like anything was possible, compelled me to jump off a roof just so that I could kiss you before we had officially finished high school.

"_**But I don't care what they say, I'm in love with you"**_

Brooke, I once said that spending an evening with you was like flying first class and it still is. Everyday that I get to spend with you, I'm grateful for. You make me feel like I've won the lottery, and when we're apart I count down the time until we're together again. You had me from our first kiss Brooke Davis; my heart has belonged to you and only you for as long as I can remember. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that those feelings would be reciprocated, but now that I know they are, I've never going to let you go. Our life together is only just beginning, and today I want to tell you, in front of everyone who knows us, that you are my everything, that you make me happier than I've ever been before. You deserve the love, the life that you've dreamt of for so long. You deserve someone who loves you and only you, someone who can see the amazingly kind and generous person that you are. I see you Brooke, not just the person you want the world to see but the real you. I love you, all of you and so, today I promise, to love you, to honour and cherish you, until death do us part.


End file.
